Arizona is no longer among the top ten states with the highest number of foreclosure starts, according to housing data firm RealtyTrac -- for the first time since February 2007.
The state saw 3,300 new foreclosure filings in July, a slight increase from the previous month but a 60 percent decrease since last year. Vice President Daren Blomquist said that could be a product of the fact that Arizona didn’t intervene much when the housing crisis first hit, likening it to ripping a bandaid off. He said other states, including ones where filings were up sharply last month, tried to ease the foreclosure crisis with laws and court rulings.
"The initial impact of that is that foreclosure numbers were lower there during the height of the housing crisis, but the unintended consequence now is that we're seeing these deferred foreclosures come through the pipeline and that's why we're seeing increases," he said.
Blomquist thinks Arizona’s real estate market is on track to continue improving.
"The one concern I would have for the Arizona market is still a very percentage of homeowners are underwater, and those are a risk factor for the market because those homeowner's can't really, fully participate in buying and selling at this point."